OX Drive

In OX App Suite, Open-Xchange provides a cloud storage called OX Drive. It provides file- and folder synchronization across multiple devices in the most simplest way for the end user, fully optimized for each device type. This article explains how to set up the server-side components for OX Drive, as well as details about the client setup.

OX Server Edition / App Suite for UCS

If you have purchased the OX Server Edition / App Suite for UCS, the OX Drive is part of the offering and after the installation/update available. The necessary package for push, is available with a valid license and can be installed via the Univention App Center.

The new license is already registered at the LDB after purchase.

Log on at the Univention Management Console (UMC)

Make sure, that the correct LDB account has been selected in the UMC module "OX License Management"

Click on "App Center" at the UMC und switch to the tab "Repository Settings"

Within the component list, select "Open-Xchange Drive" and press the "Install" button

Configuration

The following gives an overview about the most important settings to enable file synchronization via OX Drive, especially when it comes to real-time Push notifications for the client applications.

All settings regarding the OX Drive backend component are located in the configuration file drive.properties. The default configuration should be sufficient for a basic "up-and-running" setup (with the exception of defining the Push certificates and API keys for cloud-based client notifications, see next chapters). Please refer to the inline documentation of the configuration file for more advanced options.

Push via Google Cloud Messaging (GCM)

The OX Drive application for Android devices is able to receive Push notifications from the Open-Xchange Server via Google Cloud Messaging (GCM). To issue those Push messages, the backend needs to be provided with a suitable API key for the corresponding Android client application. The API key is included in the restricted components installation package open-xchange-drive-restricted for the "vanilla" Android client application. Alternatively, the key can be specified directly in the drive.properties configuration file:

# Specifies the API key of the server application. Required if
# "com.openexchange.drive.events.gcm.enabled" is "true" and the package
# containing the restricted drive components is not installed.
com.openexchange.drive.events.gcm.key=

Please note that push via GCM needs to be enabled explicitly - also if open-xchange-drive-restricted is installed.

Push via Apple Push Notification service (APNs)

The OX Drive application for iOS and Mac OS devices is able to receive Push notifications from the Open-Xchange Server via Apple Push Notification service (APNs). To issue those Push messages, the backend needs to be provided with a suitable keystore container file (PKCS #12) containing the APNs certificate and keys. Note that the Mac OS desktop client and the iOS mobile client are served separately with different certificates, so that both needs to be configured independantly. The required certificates are already included in the restricted components installation package open-xchange-drive-restricted for the "vanilla" iOS and Mac OS client applications. Alternatively, the certificate can be specified directly in the drive.properties configuration file (the following only shows the setup for iOS). First, the path to the PKCS #12 container file needs to be specified at:

# Specifies the path to the local keystore file (PKCS #12) containing the APNS
# certificate and keys for the iOS application, e.g.
# "/opt/open-xchange/etc/drive-apns.p12". Required if
# "com.openexchange.drive.events.apn.enabled" is "true" and the package
# containing the restricted drive components is not installed.
com.openexchange.drive.events.apn.ios.keystore=

This file is opened by the backend using the password as supplied via:

# Specifies the password used when creating the referenced keystore containing
# the certificate of the iOS application. Note that blank or null passwords
# are in violation of the PKCS #12 specifications. Required if
# "com.openexchange.drive.events.apn.enabled" is "true" and the package
# containing the restricted drive components is not installed.
com.openexchange.drive.events.apn.ios.password=

Configuration also allows to swith between development and production environments, however, this setting should be true normally:

# Indicates which APNS service is used when sending push notifications to iOS
# devices. A value of "true" will use the production service, a value of
# "false" the sandbox service. Defaults to "true".
com.openexchange.drive.events.apn.ios.production=true

The OX backend contacts the APNs servers from time to time to get informed about clients no longer reachable clients where the applications was uninstalled. The interval can be defined with the following setting:

# Configures the interval between queries to the APN feedback service for the
# subscribed iOS devices. The value can be defined using units of measurement:
# "D" (=days), "W" (=weeks) and "H" (=hours). Defaults to "1D" (one day).
# Leaving this parameter empty disables the feedback queries on this node.
# Since each received feedback is processed cluster-wide, only one node in the
# cluster should be enabled here.
com.openexchange.drive.events.apn.ios.feedbackQueryInterval=1D

Please note that if you have multiple backend nodes in the cluster, it's recommended that only one node is configured to contact the feedback query service. Finally, Push notifications via APN for iOS can be enabled via:

# Enables or disables push event notifications to clients using the Apple Push
# Notification service (APNS) for Mac OS devices. This requires a valid
# configuration for the APNS certificate and keys, see either options below,
# or install the restricted components packages for drive. Defaults to
# "false".
com.openexchange.drive.events.apn.ios.enabled=false

As stated above, configuration for Push notifications via APN for the Mac OS desktop application is configured similarly, the relevant options are prefixed with com.openexchange.drive.events.apn.macos. Please also note that push via APNS needs to be enabled explicitly - also if open-xchange-drive-restricted is installed.

Further Configuration

The backend component of OX Drive supplies the clients with various hyperlinks, e.g. deep-links to files and folders in the groupware webinterface or an URL to the online help. In order to point to the suitable web interface, please ensure that the correct UI web path is configured via com.openexchange.UIWebPath located in server.properties.

As already mentioned above, the backend relies on the Comet component of the Grizzly http connector for sending push notifications to the desktop clients. Therefore, com.openexchange.http.grizzly.hasCometEnabled needs to be set to true in grizzly.properties.

Enabling OX Drive for Users

OX Drive is enabled for all users that have the capability com.openexchange.capability.drive. Please note that users need to have the infostore permission set to use drive. So the users that have drive enabled must be a subset of those users with infostore permission. Since 7.6.0 we enforce this via the default configuration. You can also enable this cabaility globally with the following setting in the drive.properties configuration file:

# Enables or disables the "drive" module capability globally. The capability
# can also be set more fine-grained via config cascade. Per default it is only
# enabled for users that have the "infostore" permission set. This is configured
# in /opt/open-xchange/etc/contextSets/drive.yml.
com.openexchange.capability.drive=false

More details about capabilities can be found at AppSuite:Capabilities. Furthermore, this capability can be defined in a more granular way using the Config Cascade as described at ConfigCascade.

Client Configuration and Deployment

The user needs to enter the server URL and provide his username and password. Afterwards, client-specific settings may be configured. This includes the synchronization mode (All files / Favorites only) and Photostream settings on mobile devices, or the local root synchronization folder for the desktop applications. More information is available in the online documentation.

After the initial synchronization is completed, all further changes are synchronized instantly across all devices.

FAQ

How to limit the maximum file size, a configured MAX_UPLOAD_SIZE seems to have no effect for uploads from OX Drive clients?

This setting has no effect for files uploaded from OX Drive clients, since big uploads may also be processed via multiple requests in smaller chunks. We plan to offer a separate configuration option in a future release.

There are strange files and folders on the backend, where do they come from, is it safe to delete them?

To support chunked uploads, and to optimize the synchronization process, the synchronization logic may create various temporary files (.drive directory and contained files). They only appear in the web interface if the setting Show hidden files and folders is enabled, and are removed automatically if not accessed for a specific period (default: 1 day).

Not all files and folders get synchronized. Are there any restrictions?

Yes, please consult the online help for a detailed list of excluded files and folders.

How do I synchronize a shared or public folder?

Currently, only the synchronization of a single root folder (and all of it's subfolders) is possible. For the mobile client applications, this is always the default personal drive folder of the user, while the desktop clients allow to choose which folder to synchronize. The synchronization of multiple root folders is scheduled for a future release.